Story+2006-05-27+Mansfield,+MA

´´Good evening, Boston....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´John Henry´´**

´´Good evening, Boston....are you ready for a picnic? (crowd cheers) alright, alright, woo!... I wanna send this one out to Janet and David Hurne/Hern....this is for Janet and David Hurner/Hern....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´O Mary Don´t You Weep´´ **

´´Woo!....let´s heart it for the horn section (crowd cheers) Eddie Manion, Curt Ramm, Clarke Gayton....Art Baron....good evening....thank you for coming out....on this lovely, woo....but I´m afraid you´ve got some singing to do....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Old Dan Tucker´´ **

´´(?)....that´s a-nice....oh yes, thank you, woo! we got a real summer night going....alright, this, uh, started out, was a gospel song called ´Hands on the plow,´was, rewritten in the ´50s as ´Keep Your Eyes On The Prize´....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Eyes On The Prize´´ **

´´Marc Anthony Thompson on guitar and vocals....(?) alright, I believe a good portion of this next song is, uh, is complete bullshit but, uh, some of it is true and, uh, it´s all kind of fun....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Jesse James´´ (following ´Eyes On The Prize´´) **

´´Are you experienced? (crowd cheers)(chuckles)....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´Cadillac Ranch´´**

´´Oh yeah....Curtis King....Lisa Lowell...Cindy Mizelle....Miss Patti Scialfa on the vocals.... this is a, uh, great work song, probably one of the few songs, love songs ever written to a mule but uh....as I´ve told the folks, mules were a very, very important part of the economy (chuckles) and goddamn it they still haven´t gotten their due, but, uh....actually, I guess, it was in mid-1800s when they hauled goods up and down the Erie Canal in the state of New York....this was written in 1905 by a guy named Thomas Allan and he was remembering it (chuckles)....this is ´Erie Canal,´ oh, you can give me a hand with this one, I need a little help ....a little chant-up time....(Bruce starts the chant)....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Erie Canal´´ **

´´Thank you, thank you, Boston....yes, yes, yes....this was a song written during the, uh, during the Dustbowl in the 1930s by a gal named Agnes ´Sis´ Cunningham and her brother Bill....it was, uh, I think those kinds of events in American history we never thought we´d see again but we´ve seen....just the displacement of so many people from their homes in the South, scattered across the country with, uh, nothing much more than what they could carry ....this is, uh, ´Where did it go? My Oklahoma home´s been blown away´....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´My Oklahoma Home´´ **

´´Oh yeah....(?) Pats, she ain´t been with us in a while....yes!....you ready, Charles?....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´If I Should Fall Behind´´**

´´Miss Patti Scialfa....this is a great, uh, Irish anti-war song, first published in 1815....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Mrs. McGrath´´**

´´Well, we had our first show, it was down in New Orleans, was, uh....we, uh, played the Jazz, the Jazz Festival and it´s, uh....hard to explain what New Orleans is like, we can´t really get it from seeing it on the television, you get down there and there´s just, uh, miles and miles of devastated homes and the city´s lost, I think, close to half its population, just, uh ....I´ve never seen anything like it in an American city and it was, uh, if you´re a musician, of course New Orleans is, it´s sacred ground, everything came from overseas and ended up there and got all stirred up and turned into jazz and blues and folk and rock´n´roll (?)....and, uh, it´s so easy for people´s attention, you know, it´s short these days, to drift away and forget a lot of what happened there and what a special place New Orleans was just both culturally to the country at large and especially to, uh, to the musicians so, uh....anyway, this was a, uh, this was a song by a guy named Blind Alfred Reed, he wrote it during the, uh, he wrote it at the beginning of the Depression and I kept the first verse and I wrote three more, uh, for the city and, uh, I guess in honor of our....President´s trip down where he´s managed to gut the only agency through political cronyism that could help citizens down there in, in times like these so....I hate to kick the man when he´s down but....this is ´How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´How Can Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´´ **

´´Alright, this is a song ´Climbing Jacob´s Ladder´....Jacob was always, uh, this fellow in the Bible, he was kind of....always getting it wrong and God kept giving him a chance after a chance after a chance and, uh, until he kind of got it half right (chuckles) not sure what that means, I don´t know....you know, but, uh.....you can´t, you can´t get there on a free pass, you´ve got to work, you can´t get there, we´re all climbing Jacob´s Ladder a rung by rung....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Jacob´s Ladder´´ **

´´Yes, yes, we had some fancy chords on there (chuckles)....oh my Lord....woo!....(?) the horn section must´ve drank on that last one, that´s what I say....we all went to different keys in that last, last part, we just climbed too fucking high, that´s right (chuckles) climbed too fucking high, we got too big for our britches....thought we could take it up one more time and we fucked it up (chuckles) alright (chuckles)....oh, this is probably the most, uh, I guess the most important political protest song ever written, still sung all around the world....wherever people are struggling, this is ´We Shall Overcome´....this is kind of the song that started our happy accident up here, we played this one and said ´Hmm, that sounds pretty good´ (chuckles) ´Let´s try some more´....(some people are yelling)....we - shut the fuck up....we appreciate your support.... ´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´We Shall Overcome´´ (following ´Jacob´s Ladder´)**

´´Very good....(?) yes....the new guys, you know, they´re just not used to the glory of the whole thing....it gets them a little crazy....come on out, everyone....The Seeger Sessions Band....Marty Rifkin on key, on steel guitar....Charlie Giordano on the keyboards....Cindy Mizelle on vocals, Curtis King, lovely Lisa Lowell....Larry Eagle on drums....Art ´King of the rock´n´roll tuba´ Baron....Curt Ramm....La Bamba on trombone....Mark Pender on trumpet....Curt Ramm on trumpet, Clark Gayton on trombone....Eddie Manion on saxophone, Frank Bruno on guitar, Sam Bardfeld....Greg Liszt on banjo....Mr. Marc Anthony Thompson on guitar and vocals....Jeremy Chatzky....Soozie Tyrell on vocals....and the lovely Miss Patti Scialfa....woo!....that´s a long band introduction, alright (chuckles) alright, we got our friends tonight out there from the Greater Boston Foodbank, please check them out on your way out, they help end hunger here in Eastern Massachusetts, the Greater Boston Foodbank here in your community helping the struggling citizens....this is, uh, for Memorial Day....feel free to join in....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Bring ´Em Home´´ **

´´Alright, this is, uh....this is kind of a ska-mariachi-polka, those things all have a lot in common, believe it or not....uh, if I´m correct, the Polish people settled in Texas and brought the polka to Mexico, which then came back as mariachi music and then somebody dyed their hair and it became ska....something like that (chuckles) anyway, I need a little help....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Ramrod´´ **

´´Thank you....thank you, Boston, for a lovely opening night to our American leg here....may we be so lucky everywhere else we go....thank you....woo!....alright (?)....this is a song that, uh, we learned for our show in New Orleans, uh, and we played with great trepidation (chuckles) because it´s kind of the theme song, I guess, of the city and there´s so many great bands and brass bands down there that´ve played this song so well, but I was going through an old folkbook I had and I came across a couple of verses that I hadn´t heard sung that often and they kind of explained both what our whole little project and, uh, also sort of stands as a prayer for the city of New Orleans and, uh, for you so we´ll send this out....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´When The Saints Go Marching In´´ **

´´Miss Patti Scialfa....Marc Thompson....oh yes, oh yes....we got one more for you....I cannot come to Boston without my old friend, Peter, where are you, man?....(Peter Wolf comes onstage)...I don´t know how we´re gonna do this one, we´re gonna give a few verses of it a try....´´
 * 27.05.06 Boston, MA, intro to ´´Dirty Water´´ **

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//